Adventurers need a place to rest their heads, and when an inn or Fort Ettin won’t do, then a true home is needed. Maybe there is a family that needs taking care of, or a large group of pets - either way, you can now acquire a private home for yourself and your dependents. The following are a set of rules for buying or constructing your own house in one of the downtime safe zones.
With DTDM agreement, Building a House can be done anywhere there's no existing building, and Buying a House can be done anywhere there's an existing building for sale.
You may wish to buy a home off the market that has already been built, and is ready to move in to. After all, are you confident enough that you can calculate the maximum loadbearing pressure those walls can take before the roof collapses right over your head?
In the abstract, someone is always willing to sell a house, and the availability of homes of varying sizes is limited only by the purchase price.
The total purchase price depends on the size of the property and in which town it is located. Buy Cost increases with the size of the property, and houses in Daring Heights (as the oldest and largest town in the Dawnlands) are generally more expensive than those in the quaint rural farming community of New Hillborrow; this is denoted by the Location Cost. To buy a home, you will need to choose a property size, and add the relevant Location Cost to the fixed Buy Cost. There are no potential complications associated with buying a home.
Example: Celina wants to buy a small house in Port Ffirst, which will cost her a total of 5,400gp, made up of the Buy Cost of 5,000gp plus the Location Cost of 400gp.
Size | Buy Cost | Location Cost [DH/PF/NH] (GP) |
Tiny | 3,000 | 250/200/150 |
Small | 5,000 | 500/400/300 |
Medium | 8,000 | 1000/800/600 |
Large | 20,000 | 2000/1600/1200 |
Huge | 24,000 | 5000/4000/3000 |
Buying a house is very expensive. If you have an appropriate tool proficiency (Mason’s Tools or Carpenter’s Tools), you may instead want to build it yourself!
You will have to pay a smaller sum for building materials and the land deed (Build Cost + Location Cost) but you will have to invest time to build and assemble the house yourself,
using your downtime (taxing slots equal to the listed build time). This time can be shortened by hiring additional workers at the cost of 25gp per week who each have taxing slots to apply to the building effort. Depending on the size of the build, the number of workers you can hire varies - building a tiny hut with an army of workers doesn't make the effort faster when they get into each others’ way! However, your adventurer does not count towards the Maximum Workers limit, and if you have hired workers, you do not need to be present yourself for the work to continue on a weekly basis.
Example: Jacinta wants to build a medium sized house in New Hillborrow. She will need to pay 4,000gp for building materials (Build Cost) and 600gp for the deed to the land (Location Cost). If she works alone, she will need to invest 42 taxing downtime slots to finish the house. Instead, she can hire a maximum of 6 workers for 150gp per week (6 x 25gp), which would lower the build time significantly to 6 weeks! This assumes Jacinta continues to work every week on the house herself as well.
Size | Buy Cost | Location Cost [DH/PF/NH] (GP) | Max Workers | Build Time (Taxing DTA) |
Tiny | 1,500 | 250/200/150 | 3 | 20 |
Small | 2,500 | 500/400/300 | 5 | 30 |
Medium | 4,000 | 1000/800/600 | 6 | 42 |
Large | 10,000 | 2000/1600/1200 | 10 | 75 |
Huge | 20,000 | 5000/4000/3000 | 15 | 100 |
Building a house is a long and complex effort. A character risks complications occurring during the construction phase, as determined by a roll at the end of the build time. The
longer and more difficult the construction is, the greater the risk of complications occurring. Up to and including a construction time of 5 weeks, the chance of complications is 10%. Beyond that, the chance of complications arising increases by 2% per week of build time, to a maximum of 40%.
d6 | Complications |
1 | Thieves! Your construction tools have been stolen, forcing you to buy new ones worth 100gp. |
2 | The carpenter “Lefthand” Larry has done it again - walloped your fingers with a mallet while you were helpfully holding a nail in place. You will have to spend 10gp on bandages and medication, and you lose your taxing DTA slot for the current week. |
3 | The clamour of work has attracted a group of pixies from Evenbloom Hill who are keen to see what all the fuss is about and how they can enhance the chaos! Your workers are driven off by their shenanigans - you lose a full week of work at full cost. |
4 | While excavating the foundations, you dug too deep and too greedily, unearthing a sinkhole! Pay 200gp in materials to backfill and reinforce the ground to keep your house from sinking. |
5 | A freak storm surprises you, and part of your construction materials get washed away or spoiled by the deluge. Pay for replacements worth 10% of Build Cost. |
6 | It seems like one of your workers has made a right mess of things - the dimensions of the roof supports are off, forcing you to spend extra Build Time equivalent to 10% of the weeks spent so far. No extra cost, unless you hire extra workers to carry out the repairs and corrections. |
Moving Home
Family growing? Came into possession of a dragon’s hoard while adventuring? If at any point you want to trade up for a bigger property, you can sell your current house at the Buy Cost and apply the return toward the purchase or Build Cost of the new house.
Living in the comfort of your own home has its benefits. When living in your own house, you count as having “Lifestyle+1”. This means you pay the lifestyle cost one bracket below that afforded by the quality of your home.
Larger properties however are too big to be maintained by just a single occupant, and so have a minimum staff requirement. These are added to your weekly upkeep at 10gp per member of staff.
The table below provides descriptions of the house sizes, associated lifestyle, and adjusted costs.
Size | Description | Lifestyle | Adjusted Lifestyle Cost/Week | Min Staff |
Tiny | A one or two room hut or shack, well constructed but very simple. | Poor | 7sp | 0 |
Small | A cozy cottage with one or two | Modest | 14sp | 0 |
Medium | A comfortable house, perhaps | Comfortable | 7gp | 0 |
Large | A well appointed townhouse or | Wealthy | 34gp (14gp+20gp for staff) | 2 |
Huge | A palatial property in excellently | Aristocratic | 78gp (28gp+50gp for staff) | 5 |